Plutarch’s Lives

Marcus Brutus

Translated by John Dryden
and
Revised by Arthur Hugh Clough

Marcus Brutus was descended from that
Junius Brutus to whom the ancient Romans erected a statue of brass in
the capitol among the images of their kings with a drawn sword in his
hand, in remembrance of his courage and resolution in expelling the
Tarquins and destroying the monarchy. But that ancient Brutus was of a
severe and inflexible nature, like steel of too hard a temper, and
having never had his character softened by study and thought, he let
himself be so far transported with his rage and hatred against tyrants,
that, for conspiring with them, he proceeded to the execution even of
his own sons. But this Brutus, whose life we now write, having to the
goodness of his disposition added the improvements of learning and the
study of philosophy, and having stirred up his natural parts, of
themselves grave and gentle, by applying himself to business and public
affairs, seems to have been of a temper exactly framed for virtue;
insomuch that they who were most his enemies upon account of his
conspiracy against Cæsar, if in that whole affair there was any
honorable or generous part, referred it wholly to Brutus, and laid
whatever was barbarous and cruel to the charge of Cassius, Brutus’s
connection and familiar friend, but not his equal in honesty and
pureness of purpose. His mother, Servilia, was of the family of
Servilius Ahala, who, when Spurius Mælius worked the people into a
rebellion and designed to make himself king, taking a dagger under his
arm, went forth into the marketplace, and, upon presence of having some
private business with him, came up close to him, and, as he bent his
head to hear what he had to say, struck him with his dagger and slew
him. And thus much, as concerns his descent by the mother’s side, is
confessed by all; but as for his father’s family, they who for Cæsar’s
murder bore any hatred or ill-will to Brutus say that he came not from
that Brutus who expelled the Tarquins, there being none of his race
left after the execution of his two sons; but that his ancestor was a
plebeian, son of one Brutus, a steward, and only rose in the latest
times to office or dignity in the commonwealth. But Posidonius the
philosopher writes that it is true indeed what the history relates,
that two of the sons of Brutus who were of men’s estate were put to
death, but that a third, yet an infant, was left alive, from whom the
family was propagated down to Marcus Brutus; and further, that there
were several famous persons of this house in his time whose looks very
much resembled the statue of Junius Brutus. But of this subject enough.

Cato the philosopher was brother to Servilia, the mother of Brutus,
and he it was whom of all the Romans his nephew most admired and
studied to imitate, and he afterwards married his daughter Porcia. Of
all the sects of the Greek philosophers, though there was none of which
he had not been a hearer and in which he had not made some proficiency,
yet he chiefly esteemed the Platonists; and, not much approving of the
modern and middle Academy, as it is called, he applied himself to the
study of the ancient. He was all his lifetime a great admirer of
Antiochus of the city of Ascalon, and took his brother Aristus into his
own house for his friend and companion, a man for his learning inferior
indeed to many of the philosophers, but for the evenness of his temper
and steadiness of his conduct equal to the best. As for Empylus, of
whom he himself and his friends often make mention in their epistles,
as one that lived with Brutus, he was a rhetorician, and has left
behind him a short but well-written history of the death of Cæsar,
entitled Brutus.

In Latin, he had by exercise attained a sufficient skill to be
able to make public addresses and to plead a cause; but in Greek, he
must be noted for affecting the sententious and short Laconic way of
speaking in sundry passages of his epistles; as when, in the beginning
of the war, he wrote thus to the Pergamenians: “I hear you have given
Dolabella money; if willingly, you must own you have injured me; if
unwillingly, show it by giving willingly to me.” And another time to
the Samians: “Your counsels are remiss and your performances slow: what
think ye will be the end?” And of the Patareans thus: “The Xanthians,
suspecting my kindness, have made their country the grave of their
despair; the Patareans, trusting themselves to me, enjoy in all points
their former liberty; it is in your power to choose the judgment of the
Patareans or the fortune of the Xanthians.” And this is the style for
which some of his letters are to be noted.

When he was but a very young man, he accompanied his uncle
Cato, to Cyprus, when he was sent there against Ptolemy. But when
Ptolemy killed himself, Cato, being by some necessary business detained
in the isle of Rhodes, had already sent one of his friends, named
Canidius, to take into his care and keeping the treasure of the king;
but presently, not feeling sure of his honesty, he wrote to Brutus to
sail immediately for Cyprus out of Pamphylia, where he then was staying
to refresh himself, being but just recovered of a fit of sickness. He
obeyed his orders, but with a great deal of unwillingness, as well out
of respect to Canidius, who was thrown out of this employment by Cato
with so much disgrace, as also because he esteemed such a commission
mean, and unsuitable to him, who was in the prime of his youth, and
given to books and study. Nevertheless, applying himself to the
business, he behaved himself so well in it that he was highly commended
by Cato, and, having turned all the goods of Ptolemy into ready money,
he sailed with the greatest part of it in his own ship to Rome.

But upon the general separation into two factions, when, Pompey
and Cæsar taking up arms against one another, the whole empire was
turned into confusion, it was commonly believed that he would take
Cæsar’s side; for his father in past time had been put to death by
Pompey. But he, thinking it his duty to prefer the interest of the
public to his own private feelings, and judging Pompey’s to be the
better cause, took part with him; though formerly he used not so much
as to salute or take any notice of Pompey, if he happened to meet him,
esteeming it a pollution to have the least conversation with the
murderer of his father. But now, looking upon him as the general of his
country, he placed himself under his command, and set sail for Cilicia
in quality of lieutenant to Sestius, who had the government of that
province. But finding no opportunity there of doing any great service,
and hearing that Pompey and Cæsar were now near one another and
preparing for the battle upon which all depended, he came of his own
accord to Macedonia to partake in the danger. At his coming it is said
that Pompey was so surprised and so pleased, that, rising from his
chair in the sight of all who were about him, he saluted and embraced
him, as one of the chiefest of his party. All the time that he was in
the camp, excepting that which he spent in Pompey’s company, he
employed in reading and in study, which he did not neglect even the day
before the great battle. It was the middle of summer, and the heat was
very great, the camp having been pitched near some marshy ground, and
the people that carried Brutus’s tent were a long while before they
came. Yet though upon these accounts he was extremely harassed and out
of order, having scarcely by the middle of the day anointed himself and
eaten a sparing meal, whilst most others were either laid to sleep or
taken up with the thoughts and apprehensions of what would be the issue
of the fight, he spent his time until the evening in writing an epitome
of Polybius.

It is said that Cæsar had so great a regard for him that he
ordered his commanders by no means to kill Brutus in the battle, but to
spare him, if possible, and bring him safe to him, if he would
willingly surrender himself; but if he made any resistance, to suffer
him to escape rather than do him any violence. And this he is believed
to have done out of a tenderness to Servilia, the mother of Brutus; for
Cæsar had, it seems, in his youth been very intimate with her, and she
passionately in love with him; and, considering that Brutus was born
about that time in which their loves were at the highest, Cæsar had a
belief that he was his own child. The story is told, that when the
great question of the conspiracy of Catiline, which had like to have
been the destruction of the commonwealth, was debated in the senate,
Cato and Cæsar were both standing up, contending together on the
decision to be come to; at which time a little note was delivered to
Cæsar from without, which he took and read silently to himself. Upon
this, Cato cried out aloud, and accused Cæsar of holding correspondence
with and receiving letters from the enemies of the commonwealth; and
when many other senators exclaimed against it, Cæsar delivered the note
as he had received it to Cato, who reading it found it to be a
love-letter from his own sister Servilia, and threw it back again to
Cæsar with the words, “Keep it, you drunkard,” and returned to the
subject of the debate. So public and notorious was Servilia’s love to
Cæsar.

After the great overthrow at Pharsalia, Pompey himself having
made his escape to the sea, and Cæsar’s army storming the camp, Brutus
stole privately out by one of the gates leading to marshy ground full
of water and covered with reeds, and, traveling through the night, got
safe to Larissa. From Larissa he wrote to Cæsar, who expressed a great
deal of joy to hear that he was safe, and, bidding him come, not only
forgave him freely, but honored and esteemed him among his chiefest
friends. Now when nobody could give any certain account which way
Pompey had fled, Cæsar took a little journey alone with Brutus, and
tried what was his opinion herein, and after some discussion which
passed between them, believing that Brutus’s conjecture was the right
one, laying aside all other thoughts, he set out directly to pursue him
towards Egypt. But Pompey, having reached Egypt, as Brutus guessed his
design was to do, there met his fate.

Brutus in the meantime gained Cæsar’s forgiveness for his
friend Cassius; and pleading also in defense of the king of the
Lybians, though he was overwhelmed with the greatness of the crimes
alleged against him, yet by his entreaties and deprecations to Cæsar in
his behalf, he preserved to him a great part of his kingdom. It is
reported that Cæsar, when he first heard Brutus speak in public, said
to his friends, “I know not what this young man intends, but, whatever
he intends, he intends vehemently.” For his natural firmness of mind,
not easily yielding, or complying in favor of everyone that entreated
his kindness, once set into action upon motives of right reason and
deliberate moral choice, whatever direction it thus took, it was pretty
sure to take effectively, and to work in such a way as not to fail in
its object. No flattery could ever prevail with him to listen to unjust
petitions; and he held that to be overcome by the importunities of
shameless and fawning entreaties, though some compliment it with the
name of modesty and bashfulness, was the worst disgrace a great man
could suffer. And he used to say, that he always felt as if they who
could deny nothing could not have behaved well in the flower of their
youth.

Cæsar, being about to make his expedition into Africa against
Cato and Scipio, committed to Brutus the government of Cisalpine Gaul,
to the great happiness and advantage of that province. For while people
in other provinces were in distress with the violence and avarice of
their governors, and suffered as much oppression as if they had been
slaves and captives of war, Brutus, by his easy government, actually
made them amends for their calamities under former rulers, directing
moreover all their gratitude for his good deeds to Cæsar himself;
insomuch that it was a most welcome and pleasant spectacle to Cæsar,
when in his return he passed through Italy, to see the cities that were
under Brutus’s command and Brutus himself increasing his honor and
joining agreeably in his progress.

Now several prætorships being vacant, it was all men’s opinion,
that that of the chiefest dignity, which is called the prætorship of
the city, would be conferred either upon Brutus or Cassius; and some
say that, there having been some little difference upon former accounts
between them, this competition set them much more at variance, though
they were connected in their families, Cassius having married Junia,
the sister of Brutus. Others say that the contention was raised between
them by Cæsar’s doing, who had privately given each of them such hopes
of his favor as led them on, and provoked them at last into this open
competition and trial of their interest. Brutus had only the reputation
of his honor and virtue to oppose to the many and gallant actions
performed by Cassius against the Parthians. But Cæsar, having heard
each side, and deliberating about the matter among his friends, said,
“Cassius has the stronger plea, but we must let Brutus be first
prætor.” So another prætorship was given to Cassius; the gaining of
which could not so much oblige him, as he was incensed for the loss of
the other. And in all other things Brutus was partaker of Cæsar’s power
as much as he desired; for he might, if he had pleased, have been the
chief of all his friends, and had authority and command beyond them
all, but Cassius and the company he met with him drew him off from
Cæsar. Indeed, he was not yet wholly reconciled to Cassius, since that
competition which was between them; but yet he gave ear to Cassius’s
friends, who were perpetually advising him not to be so blind as to
suffer himself to be softened and won upon by Cæsar, but to shun the
kindness and favors of a tyrant, which they intimated that Cæsar showed
him, not to express any honor to his merit or virtue, but to unbend his
strength, and undermine his vigor of purpose.

Neither was Cæsar wholly without suspicion of him nor wanted
informers that accused Brutus to him; but he feared, indeed, the high
spirit and the great character and the friends that he had, but thought
himself secure in his moral disposition. When it was told him that
Antony and Dolabella designed some disturbance, “It is not,” said he,
“the fat and the long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the
lean,” meaning Brutus and Cassius. And when some maligned Brutus to
him, and advised him to beware of him, taking hold of his flesh with
his hand, “What,” he said, “do you think that Brutus will not wait out
the time of this little body?” as if he thought none so fit to succeed
him in his power as Brutus. And indeed it seems to be without doubt
that Brutus might have been the first man in the commonwealth, if he
had had patience but a little time to be second to Cæsar, and would
have suffered his power to decline after it was come to its highest
pitch, and the fame of his great actions to die away by degrees. But
Cassius, a man of a fierce disposition, and one that out of private
malice, rather than love of the public, hated Cæsar, not the tyrant,
continually fired and stirred him up. Brutus felt the rule an
oppression, but Cassius hated the ruler; and, among other reasons on
which he grounded his quarrel against Cæsar, the loss of his lions
which he had procured when he was ædile elect was one; for Cæsar,
finding these in Megara, when that city was taken by Calenus, seized
them to himself. These beasts, they say, were a great calamity to the
Megarians; for, when their city was just taken, they broke open the
lions’ dens, and pulled off their chains and let them loose, that they
might run upon the enemy that was entering the city; but the lions
turned upon them themselves, and tore to pieces a great many unarmed
persons running about, so that it was a miserable spectacle even to
their enemies to behold.

And this, some say, was the chief provocation that stirred up
Cassius to conspire against Cæsar; but they are much in the wrong. For
Cassius had from his youth a natural hatred and rancor against the
whole race of tyrants, which he showed when he was but a boy, and went
to the same school with Faustus, the son of Sylla; for, on his boasting
himself amongst the boys, and extolling the sovereign power of his
father, Cassius rose up and struck him two or three boxes on the ear;
which when the guardians and relations of Faustus designed to inquire
into and to prosecute, Pompey forbade them, and, sending for both the
boys together, examined the matter himself. And Cassius then is
reported to have said thus, “Come, then, Faustus, dare to speak here
those words that provoked me, that I may strike you again as I did
before.” Such was the disposition of Cassius.

But Brutus was roused up and pushed on to the undertaking by
many persuasions of his familiar friends, and letters and invitations
from unknown citizens. For under the statue of his ancestor Brutus,
that overthrew the kingly government, they wrote the words, “O that we
had a Brutus now!” and, “O that Brutus were alive!” And Brutus’s own
tribunal, on which he sat as prætor, was filled each morning with
writings such as these: “You are asleep, Brutus,” and, “You are not a
true Brutus.” Now the flatterers of Cæsar were the occasion of all
this, who, among other invidious honors which they strove to fasten
upon Cæsar, crowned his statues by night with diadems, wishing to
incite the people to salute him king instead of dictator. But quite the
contrary came to pass, as I have more particularly related in the life of Cæsar.

When Cassius went about soliciting friends to engage in this design
against Cæsar, all whom he tried readily consented, if Brutus would be
head of it; for their opinion was that the enterprise wanted not hands
or resolution, but the reputation and authority of a man such as he
was, to give as it were the first religious sanction, and by his
presence, if by nothing else, to justify the undertaking; that without
him they should go about this action with less heart, and should lie
under greater suspicions when they had done it, for, if their cause had
been just and honorable, people would be sure that Brutus would not
have refused it. Cassius, having considered these things with himself,
went to Brutus, and made him the first visit after their falling out;
and after the compliments of reconciliation had passed, and former
kindnesses were renewed between them, he asked him if he designed to be
present in the senate on the Calends of March, for it was discoursed,
he said, that Cæsar’s friends intended then to move that he might be
made king. When Brutus answered, that he would not be there, “But
what,” says Cassius, “if they should send for us?” “It will be my
business then,” replied Brutus, “not to hold my peace, but to stand up
boldly, and die for the liberty of my country.” To which Cassius with
some emotion answered, “But what Roman will suffer you to die? What, do
you not know yourself, Brutus? Or do you think that those writings that
you find upon your prætor’s seat were put there by weavers and
shopkeepers, and not by the first and most powerful men of Rome? From
other prætors, indeed, they expect largesses and shows and gladiators,
but from you they claim, as an hereditary debt, the extirpation of
tyranny; they are all ready to suffer anything on your account, if you
will but show yourself such as they think you are and expect you should
be.” Which said, he fell upon Brutus, and embraced him; and after this,
they parted each to try their several friends.

Among the friends of Pompey there was one Caius Ligarius, whom
Cæsar had pardoned, though accused for having been in arms against him.
This man, not feeling so thankful for having been forgiven as he felt
oppressed by that power which made him need a pardon, hated Cæsar, and
was one of Brutus’s most intimate friends. Him Brutus visited, and,
finding him sick, “O Ligarius,” says he, “what a time have you found
out to be sick in!” At which words Ligarius, raising himself and
leaning on his elbow, took Brutus by the hand, and said, “But, O
Brutus, if you are on any design worthy of yourself, I am well.”

From this time, they tried the inclinations of all their
acquaintance that they durst trust, and communicated the secret to
them, and took into the design not only their familiar friends, but as
many as they believed bold and brave and despisers of death. For which
reason they concealed the plot from Cicero, though he was very much
trusted and as well beloved by them all, lest, to his own disposition,
which was naturally timorous, adding now the wariness and caution of
old age, by his weighing, as he would do, every particular, that he
might not make one step without the greatest security, he should blunt
the edge of their forwardness and resolution in a business which
required all the dispatch imaginable. As indeed there were also two
others that were companions of Brutus, Statilius the Epicurean, and
Favonius the admirer of Cato, whom he left out for this reason: as he
was conversing one day with them, trying them at a distance, and
proposing some such question to be disputed of as among philosophers,
to see what opinion they were of, Favonius declared his judgment to be
that a civil war was worse than the most illegal monarchy; and
Statilius held, that, to bring himself into troubles and danger upon
the account of evil or foolish men, did not become a man that had any
wisdom or discretion. But Labeo, who was present, contradicted them
both; and Brutus, as if it had been an intricate dispute, and difficult
to be decided, held his peace for that time, but afterwards discovered
the whole design to Labeo, who readily undertook it. The next thing
that was thought convenient, was to gain the other Brutus, surnamed
Albinus, a man of himself of no great bravery or courage, but
considerable for the number of gladiators that he was maintaining for a
public show, and the great confidence that Cæsar put in him. When
Cassius and Labeo spoke with him concerning the matter, he gave them no
answer; but, seeking an interview with Brutus himself alone, and
finding that he was their captain, he readily consented to partake in
the action. And among the others, also, the most and best were gained
by the name of Brutus. And, though they neither gave nor took any oath
of secrecy, nor used any other sacred rite to assure their fidelity to
each other, yet all kept their design so close, were so wary, and held
it so silently among themselves, that, though by prophecies and
apparitions and signs in the sacrifices the gods gave warning of it,
yet could it not be believed.

Now Brutus, feeling that the noblest spirits of Rome for
virtue, birth, or courage were depending upon him, and surveying with
himself all the circumstances of the dangers they were to encounter,
strove indeed as much as possible, when abroad, to keep his uneasiness
of mind to himself, and to compose his thoughts; but at home, and
especially at night, he was not the same man, but sometimes against his
will his working care would make him start out of his sleep, and other
times he was taken up with further reflection and consideration of his
difficulties, so that his wife that lay with him could not choose but
take notice that he was full of unusual trouble, and had in agitation
some dangerous and perplexing question. Porcia, as was said before, was
the daughter of Cato, and Brutus, her cousin-german, had married her
very young, though not a maid, but after the death of her former
husband, by whom she had one son, that was named Bibulus; and there is
a little book, called Memoirs of Brutus, written by him, yet extant.
This Porcia, being addicted to philosophy, a great lover of her
husband, and full of an understanding courage, resolved not to inquire
into Brutus’s secrets before she had made this trial of herself. She
turned all her attendants out of her chamber, and, taking a little
knife, such as they use to cut nails with, she gave herself a deep gash
in the thigh; upon which followed a great flow of blood, and, soon
after, violent pains and a shivering fever, occasioned by the wound.
Now when Brutus was extremely anxious and afflicted for her, she, in
the height of all her pain, spoke thus to him: “I, Brutus, being the
daughter of Cato, was given to you in marriage, not like a concubine,
to partake only in the common intercourse of bed and board, but to bear
a part in all your good and all your evil fortunes; and for your part,
as regards your care for me, I find no reason to complain; but from me,
what evidence of my love, what satisfaction can you receive, if I may
not share with you in bearing your hidden griefs, nor be admitted to
any of your counsels that require secrecy and trust? I know very well
that women seem to be of too weak a nature to be trusted with secrets;
but certainly, Brutus, a virtuous birth and education, and the company
of the good and honorable, are of some force to the forming our
manners; and I can boast that I am the daughter of Cato and the wife of
Brutus, in which two titles though before I put less confidence, yet
now I have tried myself, and find that I can bid defiance to pain.”
Which words having spoken, she showed him her wound, and related to him
the trial that she had made of her constancy; at which he being
astonished, lifted up his hands to heaven, and begged the assistance of
the gods in his enterprise, that he might show himself a husband worthy
of such a wife as Porcia. So then he comforted his wife.

But a meeting of the senate being appointed, at which it was
believed that Cæsar would be present, they agreed to make use of that
opportunity: for then they might appear all together without suspicion;
and, besides, they hoped that all the noblest and leading men of the
commonwealth, being then assembled, as soon as the great deed was done,
would immediately stand forward, and assert the common liberty. The
very place, too, where the senate was to meet, seemed to be by divine
appointment favorable to their purpose. It was a portico, one of those
joining the theater, with a large recess, in which there stood a statue
of Pompey, erected to him by the commonwealth, when he adorned that
part of the city with the porticos and the theater. To this place it
was that the senate was summoned for the middle of March (the Ides of
March is the Roman name for the day); as if some more than human power
were leading the man thither, there to meet his punishment for the
death of Pompey.

As soon as it was day, Brutus, taking with him a dagger, which
none but his wife knew of, went out. The rest met together at Cassius’s
house, and brought forth his son, that was that day to put on the manly
gown, as it is called, into the forum; and from thence, going all to
Pompey’s porch, stayed there, expecting Cæsar to come without delay to
the senate. Here it was chiefly that anyone who had known what they had
purposed, would have admired the unconcerned temper and the steady
resolution of these men in their most dangerous undertaking; for many
of them, being prætors, and called upon by their office to judge and
determine causes, did not only hear calmly all that made application to
them and pleaded against each other before them, as if they were free
from all other thoughts, but decided causes with as much accuracy and
judgment as they had heard them with attention and patience. And when
one person refused to stand to the award of Brutus, and with great
clamor and many attestations appealed to Cæsar, Brutus, looking round
about him upon those that were present, said, “Cæsar does not hinder
me, nor will he hinder me, from doing according to the laws.”

Yet there were many unusual accidents that disturbed them and
by mere chance were thrown in their way. The first and chiefest was the
long stay of Cæsar, though the day was far spent, and his being
detained at home by his wife, and forbidden by the soothsayers to go
forth, upon some defect that appeared in his sacrifice. Another was
this: There came a man up to Casca, one of the company, and, taking him
by the hand, “You concealed,” said he, “the secret from us, but Brutus
has told me all.” At which words when Casca was surprised, the other
said laughing, “How come you to be so rich of a sudden, that you should
stand to be chosen ædile?” So near was Casca to let out the secret,
upon the mere ambiguity of the other’s expression. Then Popilius Lænas,
a senator, having saluted Brutus and Cassius more earnestly than usual,
whispered them softly in the ear and said, “My wishes are with you,
that you may accomplish what you design, and I advise you to make no
delay, for the thing is now no secret.” This said, he departed, and
left them in great suspicion that the design had taken wind. In the
meanwhile, there came one in all haste from Brutus’s house, and brought
him news that his wife was dying. For Porcia, being extremely disturbed
with expectation of the event, and not able to bear the greatness of
her anxiety, could scarce keep herself within doors; and at every
little noise or voice she heard, starting up suddenly, like those
possessed with the bacchic frenzy, she asked everyone that came in from
the forum what Brutus was doing, and sent one messenger after another
to inquire. At last, after long expectation, the strength of her body
could hold out no longer; her mind was overcome with her doubts and
fears, and she lost the control of herself, and began to faint away.
She had not time to betake herself to her chamber, but, sitting as she
was amongst her women, a sudden swoon and a great stupor seized her,
and her color changed, and her speech was quite lost. At this sight,
her women made a loud cry, and many of the neighbors running to
Brutus’s door to know what was the matter, the report was soon spread
abroad that Porcia was dead; though with her women’s help she recovered
in a little while, and came to herself again. When Brutus received this
news, he was extremely troubled, nor without reason, yet was not so
carried away by his private grief as to quit his public purpose.

For now news was brought that Cæsar was coming, carried in a
litter. For, being discouraged by the ill omens that attended his
sacrifice, he had determined to undertake no affairs of any great
importance that day, but to defer them till another time, excusing
himself that he was sick. As soon as he came out of his litter,
Popilius Lænas, he who but a little before had wished Brutus good
success in his undertaking, coming up to him, conversed a great while
with him, Cæsar standing still all the while, and seeming to be very
attentive. The conspirators, (to give them this name,) not being able
to hear what he said, but guessing by what themselves were conscious of
that this conference was the discovery of their treason, were again
disheartened, and, looking upon one another, agreed from each other’s
countenances that they should not stay to be taken, but should all kill
themselves. And now when Cassius and some others were laying hands upon
their daggers under their robes, and were drawing them out, Brutus,
viewing narrowly the looks and gesture of Lænas, and finding that he
was earnestly petitioning and not accusing, said nothing, because there
were many strangers to the conspiracy mingled amongst them, but by a
cheerful countenance encouraged Cassius. And after a little while,
Lænas, having kissed Cæsar’s hand, went away, showing plainly that all
his discourse was about some particular business relating to himself.

Now when the senate was gone in before to the chamber where
they were to sit, the rest of the company placed themselves close about
Cæsar’s chair, as if they had some suit to make to him, and Cassius,
turning his face to Pompey’s statue, is said to have invoked it, as if
it had been sensible of his prayers. Trebonius, in the meanwhile,
engaged Antony’s attention at the door, and kept him in talk outside.
When Cæsar entered, the whole senate rose up to him. As soon as he was
set down, the men all crowded round about him, and set Tillius Cimber,
one of their own number, to intercede in behalf of his brother, that
was banished; they all joined their prayers with his, and took Cæsar by
the hand, and kissed his head and his breast. But he putting aside at
first their supplications, and afterwards, when he saw they would not
desist, violently rising up, Tillius with both hands caught hold of his
robe and pulled it off from his shoulders, and Casca, that stood behind
him, drawing his dagger, gave him the first, but a slight wound, about
the shoulder. Cæsar snatching hold of the handle of the dagger, and
crying out aloud in Latin, “Villain Casca, what do you?” he, calling in
Greek to his brother, bade him come and help. And by this time, finding
himself struck by a great many hands, and looking round about him to
see if he could force his way out, when he saw Brutus with his dagger
drawn against him, he let go Casca’s hand, that he had hold of, and,
covering his head with his robe, gave up his body to their blows. And
they so eagerly pressed towards the body, and so many daggers were
hacking together, that they cut one another; Brutus, particularly,
received a wound in his hand, and all of them were besmeared with the
blood.

Cæsar being thus slain, Brutus, stepping forth into the midst,
intended to have made a speech, and called back and encouraged the
senators to stay; but they all affrighted ran away in great disorder,
and there was a great confusion and press at the door, though none
pursued or followed. For they had come to an express resolution to kill
nobody besides Cæsar, but to call and invite all the rest to liberty.
It was indeed the opinion of all the others, when they consulted about
the execution of their design, that it was necessary to cut off Antony
with Cæsar, looking upon him as an insolent man, an affecter of
monarchy, and one that, by his familiar intercourse, had gained a
powerful interest with the soldiers. And this they urged the rather,
because at that time to the natural loftiness and ambition of his
temper there was added the dignity of being consul and colleague to
Cæsar. But Brutus opposed this counsel, insisting first upon the
injustice of it, and afterwards giving them hopes that a change might
be worked in Antony. For he did not despair but that so highly gifted
and honorable a man, and such a lover of glory as Antony, stirred up
with emulation of their great attempt, might, if Cæsar were once
removed, lay hold of the occasion to be joint restorer with them of the
liberty of his country. Thus did Brutus save Antony’s life. But he, in
the general consternation, put himself into a plebeian habit, and fled.
But Brutus and his party marched up to the capitol, in their way
showing their hands all bloody, and their naked swords, and proclaiming
liberty to the people. At first all places were filled with cries and
shouts; and the wild running to and fro, occasioned by the sudden
surprise and passion that everyone was in, increased the tumult in the
city. But no other bloodshed following, and no plundering of the goods
in the streets, the senators and many of the people took courage and
went up to the men in the capitol; and, a multitude being gathered
together, Brutus made an oration to them, very popular, and proper for
the state that affairs were then in. Therefore, when they applauded his
speech, and cried out to him to come down, they all took confidence and
descended into the forum; the rest promiscuously mingled with one
another, but many of the most eminent persons, attending Brutus,
conducted him in the midst of them with great honor from the capitol,
and placed him in the rostra. At the sight of Brutus, the crowd, though
consisting of a confused mixture and all disposed to make a tumult,
were struck with reverence, and expected what he would say with order
and with silence, and, when he began to speak, heard him with quiet and
attention. But that all were not pleased with this action they plainly
showed when, Cinna beginning to speak and accuse Cæsar, they broke out
into a sudden rage, and railed at him in such language, that the whole
party thought fit again to withdraw to the capitol. And there Brutus,
expecting to be besieged, dismissed the most eminent of those that had
accompanied them thither, not thinking it just that they who were not
partakers of the fact should share in the danger.

But the next day, the senate being assembled in the temple of
the Earth, and Antony and Plancus and Cicero having made orations
recommending concord in general and an act of oblivion, it was decreed,
that the men should not only be put out of all fear or danger, but that
the consuls should see what honors and dignities were proper to be
conferred upon them. After which done, the senate broke up; and, Antony
having sent his son as an hostage to the capitol, Brutus and his
company came down, and mutual salutes and invitations passed amongst
them, the whole of them being gathered together. Antony invited and
entertained Cassius, Lepidus did the same to Brutus, and the rest were
invited and entertained by others, as each of them had acquaintance or
friends. And as soon as it was day, the senate met again and voted
thanks to Antony for having stifled the beginning of a civil war;
afterwards Brutus and his associates that were present received
encomiums, and had provinces assigned and distributed among them. Crete
was allotted to Brutus, Africa to Cassius, Asia to Trebonius, Bithynia
to Cimber, and to the other Brutus Gaul about the Po.

After these things, they began to consider of Cæsar’s will, and
the ordering of his funeral. Antony desired that the will might be
read, and that the body should not have a private or dishonorable
interment, lest that should further exasperate the people. This Cassius
violently opposed, but Brutus yielded to it, and gave leave; in which
he seems to have a second time committed a fault. For as before in
sparing the life of Antony he could not be without some blame from his
party, as thereby setting up against the conspiracy a dangerous and
difficult enemy, so now, in suffering him to have the ordering of the
funeral, he fell into a total and irrecoverable error. For first, it
appearing by the will that Cæsar had bequeathed to the Roman people
seventy-five drachmas a man, and given to the public his gardens beyond
Tiber (where now the temple of Fortune stands), the whole city was
fired with a wonderful affection for him, and a passionate sense of the
loss of him. And when the body was brought forth into the forum,
Antony, as the custom was, making a funeral oration in the praise of
Cæsar, and finding the multitude moved with his speech, passing into
the pathetic tone, unfolded the bloody garment of Cæsar, showed them in
how many places it was pierced, and the number of his wounds. Now there
was nothing to be seen but confusion; some cried out to kill the
murderers, others (as was formerly done when Clodius led the people)
tore away the benches and tables out of the shops round about, and,
heaping them all together, built a great funeral pile, and, having put
the body of Cæsar upon it, set it on fire, the spot where this was done
being moreover surrounded with a great many temples and other
consecrated places, so that they seemed to burn the body in a kind of
sacred solemnity. As soon as the fire flamed out, the multitude,
flocking in some from one part and some from another, snatched the
brands that were half burnt out of the pile, and ran about the city to
fire the houses of the murderers of Cæsar. But they, having beforehand
well fortified themselves, repelled this danger.

There was however a kind of poet, one Cinna, not at all
concerned in the guilt of the conspiracy, but on the contrary one of
Cæsar’s friends. This man dreamed that he was invited to supper by
Cæsar, and that he declined to go, but that Cæsar entreated and pressed
him to it very earnestly; and at last, taking him by the hand, led him
into a very deep and dark place, whither he was forced against his will
to follow in great consternation and amazement. After this vision, he
had a fever the most part of the night; nevertheless in the morning,
hearing that the body of Cæsar was to be carried forth to be interred,
he was ashamed not to be present at the solemnity, and came abroad and
joined the people, when they were already infuriated by the speech of
Antony. And perceiving him, and taking him not for that Cinna who
indeed he was, but for him that a little before in a speech to the
people had reproached and inveighed against Cæsar, they fell upon him
and tore him to pieces.

This action chiefly, and the alteration that Antony had
wrought, so alarmed Brutus and his party, that for their safety they
retired from the city. The first stay they made was at Antium, with a
design to return again as soon as the fury of the people had spent
itself and was abated, which they expected would soon and easily come
to pass in an unsettled multitude, apt to be carried away with any
sudden and impetuous passion, especially since they had the senate
favorable to them; which, though it took no notice of those that had
torn Cinna to pieces, yet made a strict search and apprehended in order
to punishment those that had assaulted the houses of the friends of
Brutus and Cassius. By this time, also, the people began to be
dissatisfied with Antony, who they perceived was setting up a kind of
monarchy for himself; they longed for the return of Brutus, whose
presence they expected and hoped for at the games and spectacles which
he, as prætor, was to exhibit to the public. But he, having
intelligence that many of the old soldiers that had borne arms under
Cæsar, by whom they had had lands and cities given them, lay in wait
for him, and by small parties at a time had stolen into the city, would
not venture to come himself; however, in his absence there were most
magnificent and costly shows exhibited to the people; for, having
bought up a great number of all sorts of wild beasts, he gave order
that not any of them should be returned or saved, but that all should
be spent freely at the public spectacles. He himself made a journey to
Naples to procure a considerable number of players, and hearing of one
Canutius, that was very much praised for his acting upon the stage, he
wrote to his friends to use all their entreaties to bring him to Rome
(for, being a Grecian, he could not be compelled); he wrote also to
Cicero, begging him by no means to omit being present at the shows.

This was the posture of affairs when another sudden alteration
was made upon the young Cæsar’s coming to Rome. He was son to the niece
of Cæsar, who adopted him, and left him his heir by his will. At the
time when Cæsar was killed, he was following his studies at Apollonia,
where he was expecting also to meet Cæsar on his way to the expedition
which he had determined on against the Parthians; but, hearing of his
death, he immediately came to Rome, and, to ingratiate himself with the
people, taking upon himself the name of Cæsar, and punctually
distributing among the citizens the money that was left them by the
will, he soon got the better of Antony; and by money and largesses,
which he liberally dispersed amongst the soldiers, he gathered together
and brought over to his party a great number of those that had served
under Cæsar. Cicero himself, out of the hatred which he bore to Antony,
sided with young Cæsar; which Brutus took so ill that he treated with
him very sharply in his letters, telling him, that he perceived Cicero
could well enough endure a tyrant, but was afraid that he who hated him
should be the man; that in writing and speaking so well of Cæsar, he
showed that his aim was to have an easy slavery. “But our forefathers,”
said Brutus, “could not brook even gentle masters.” Further he added,
that for his own part he had not as yet fully resolved whether he
should make war or peace; but that as to one point he was fixed and
settled, which was, never to be a slave; that he wondered Cicero should
fear the dangers of a civil war, and not be much more afraid of a
dishonorable and infamous peace; that the very reward that was to be
given him for subverting Antony’s tyranny was the privilege of
establishing Cæsar as tyrant in his place. This is the tone of Brutus’s
first letters to Cicero.

The city being now divided into two factions, some betaking
themselves to Cæsar and others to Antony, the soldiers selling
themselves, as it were, by public outcry, and going over to him that
would give them most, Brutus began to despair of any good event of such
proceedings, and, resolving to leave Italy, passed by land through
Lucania and came to Elea by the seaside. From hence it was thought
convenient that Porcia should return to Rome. She was overcome with
grief to part from Brutus, but strove as much as was possible to
conceal it; but, in spite of all her constancy, a picture which she
found there accidentally betrayed it. It was a Greek subject, Hector
parting from Andromache when he went to engage the Greeks, giving his
young son Astyanax into her arms, and she fixing her eyes upon him.
When she looked at this piece, the resemblance it bore to her own
condition made her burst into tears, and several times a day she went
to see the picture, and wept before it. Upon this occasion, when
Acilius, one of Brutus’s friends, repeated out of Homer the verses,
where Andromache speaks to Hector:—

“But
Hector, you
To me are father and are mother too,
My brother, and my loving husband true.”

Brutus, smiling, replied, “But I must not answer Porcia, as Hector did Andromache:—

“Mind you your loom, and to your maids give law.”

For though the natural weakness of her body hinders her from doing what
only the strength of men can perform, yet she has a mind as valiant and
as active for the good of her country as the best of us.” This
narrative is in the memoirs of Brutus written by Bibulus, Porcia’s son.

Brutus took ship from hence, and sailed to Athens where he was
received by the people with great demonstrations of kindness, expressed
in their acclamations and the honors that were decreed him. He lived
there with a private friend, and was a constant auditor of Theomnestus
the Academic and Cratippus the Peripatetic, with whom he so engaged in
philosophical pursuits, that he seemed to have laid aside all thoughts
of public business, and to be wholly at leisure for study. But all this
while, being unsuspected, he was secretly making preparation for war;
in order to which he sent Herostratus into Macedonia to secure the
commanders there to his side, and he himself won over and kept at his
disposal all the young Romans that were then students at Athens. Of
this number was Cicero’s son, whom he everywhere highly extols, and
says that whether sleeping or waking he could not choose but admire a
young man of so great a spirit and such a hater of tyranny.

At length he began to act openly, and to appear in public
business, and, being informed that there were several Roman ships full
of treasure that in their course from Asia were to come that way, and
that they were commanded by one of his friends, he went to meet him
about Carystus. Finding him there, and having persuaded him to deliver
up the ships, he made a more than usually splendid entertainment, for
it happened also to be his birthday. Now when they came to drink, and
were filling their cups with hopes for victory to Brutus and liberty to
Rome, Brutus, to animate them the more, called for a larger bowl, and
holding it in his hand, on a sudden upon no occasion or forethought
pronounced aloud this verse:—

“But fate my death and Leto’s son have wrought.”

And some writers add that in the last battle which he fought at
Philippi the word that he gave to his soldiers was Apollo, and from
thence conclude that this sudden unaccountable exclamation of his was a
presage of the overthrow that he suffered there.

Antistius, the commander of these ships, at his parting gave
him fifty thousand myriads of the money that he was conveying to Italy;
and all the soldiers yet remaining of Pompey’s army, who after their
general’s defeat wandered about Thessaly, readily and joyfully flocked
together to join him. Besides this, he took from Cinna five hundred
horse that he was carrying to Dolabella into Asia. After that, he
sailed to Demetrias, and there seized a great quantity of arms, that
had been provided by the command of the deceased Cæsar for the Parthian
war, and were now to be sent to Antony. Then Macedonia was put into his
hands and delivered up by Hortensius the prætor, and all the kings and
potentates round about came and offered their services. So when news
was brought that Caius, the brother of Antony, having passed over from
Italy, was marching on directly to join the forces that Vatinius
commanded in Dyrrhachium and Apollonia, Brutus resolved to anticipate
him, and to seize them first, and in all haste moved forwards with
those that he had about him. His march was very difficult, through
rugged places and in a great snow, but so swift that he left those that
were to bring his provisions for the morning meal a great way behind.
And now, being very near to Dyrrhachium, with fatigue and cold he fell
into the distemper called Bulimia. This is a disease that seizes both
men and cattle after much labor, and especially in a great snow;
whether it is caused by the natural heat, when the body is seized with
cold, being forced all inwards, and consuming at once all the
nourishment laid in, or whether the sharp and subtle vapor which comes
from the snow as it dissolves, cuts the body, as it were, and destroys
the heat which issues through the pores; for the sweatings seem to
arise from the heat meeting with the cold, and being quenched by it on
the surface of the body. But this I have in another place discussed
more at large.

Brutus growing very faint, and there being none in the whole
army that had anything for him to eat, his servants were forced to have
recourse to the enemy, and, going as far as to the gates of the city,
begged bread of the sentinels that were upon duty. As soon as they
heard of the condition of Brutus, they came themselves, and brought
both meat and drink along with them; in return for which, Brutus, when
he took the city, showed the greatest kindness, not to them only, but
to all the inhabitants, for their sakes. Caius Antonius, in the
meantime, coming to Apollonia, summoned all the soldiers that were near
that city to join him there; but finding that they nevertheless went
all to Brutus, and suspecting that even those of Apollonia were
inclined to the same party, he quitted that city, and came to
Buthrotum, having first lost three cohorts of his men, that in their
march thither were cut to pieces by Brutus. After this, attempting to
make himself master of some strong places about Byllis which the enemy
had first seized, he was overcome in a set battle by young Cicero, to
whom Brutus gave the command, and whose conduct he made use of often
and with much success. Caius himself was surprised in a marshy place,
at a distance from his supports; and Brutus, having him in his power,
would not suffer his soldiers to attack, but maneuvering about the
enemy with his horse, gave command that none of them should be killed,
for that in a little time they would all be of his side; which
accordingly came to pass, for they surrendered both themselves and
their general. So that Brutus had by this time a very great and
considerable army. He showed all marks of honor and esteem to Caius for
a long time, and left him the use of the ensigns of his office, though,
as some report, he had several letters from Rome, and particularly from
Cicero, advising him to put him to death. But at last, perceiving that
he began to corrupt his officers, and was trying to raise a mutiny
amongst the soldiers, he put him aboard a ship and kept him close
prisoner. In the meantime the soldiers that had been corrupted by Caius
retired to Apollonia, and sent word to Brutus, desiring him to come to
them thither. He answered that this was not the custom of the Romans,
but that it became those who had offended to come themselves to their
general and beg forgiveness of their offences; which they did, and
accordingly received their pardon.

As he was preparing to pass into Asia, tidings reached him of
the alteration that had happened at Rome; where the young Cæsar,
assisted by the senate, in opposition to Antony, and having driven his
competitor out of Italy, had begun himself to be very formidable, suing
for the consulship contrary to law, and maintaining large bodies of
troops of which the commonwealth had no manner of need. And then,
perceiving that the senate, dissatisfied with his proceedings, began to
cast their eyes abroad upon Brutus, and decreed and confirmed the
government of several provinces to him, he had taken the alarm.
Therefore dispatching messengers to Antony, he desired that there might
be a reconciliation, and a friendship between them. Then, drawing all
his forces about the city, he made himself be chosen consul, though he
was but a boy, being scarce twenty years old, as he himself writes in
his memoirs. At his first entry upon the consulship he immediately
ordered a judicial process to be issued out against Brutus and his
accomplices for having murdered a principal man of the city, holding
the highest magistracies of Rome, without being heard or condemned; and
appointed Lucius Cornificius to accuse Brutus, and Marcus Agrippa to
accuse Cassius. None appearing to the accusation, the judges were
forced to pass sentence and condemn them both. It is reported, that
when the crier from the tribunal, as the custom was, with a loud voice
cited Brutus to appear, the people groaned audibly, and the noble
citizens hung down their heads for grief. Publius Silicius was seen to
burst out into tears, which was the cause that not long after he was
put down in the list of those that were proscribed. After this, the
three men, Cæsar, Antony, and Lepidus, being perfectly reconciled,
shared the provinces among themselves, and made up the catalogue of
proscription, wherein were set those that were designed for slaughter,
amounting to two hundred men, in which number Cicero was slain.

This news being brought to Brutus in Macedonia, he was under a
compulsion, and sent orders to Hortensius that he should kill Caius
Antonius in revenge of the death of Cicero his friend, and Brutus his
kinsman, who also was proscribed and slain. Upon this account it was
that Antony, having afterwards taken Hortensius in the battle of
Philippi, slew him upon his brother’s tomb. But Brutus expresses
himself as more ashamed for the cause of Cicero’s death than grieved
for the misfortune of it, and says he cannot help accusing his friends
at Rome, that they were slaves more through their own doing than that
of those who now were their tyrants; they could be present and see and
yet suffer those things which even to hear related ought to them to
have been insufferable.

Having made his army, that was already very considerable, pass
into Asia, he ordered a fleet to be prepared in Bithynia and about
Cyzicus. But going himself through the country by land, he made it his
business to settle and confirm all the cities, and gave audience to the
princes of the parts through which he passed. And he sent orders into
Syria to Cassius to come to him, and leave his intended journey into
Egypt; letting him understand, that it was not to gain an empire for
themselves, but to free their country, that they went thus wandering
about and had got an army together whose business it was to destroy the
tyrants; that therefore, if they remembered and resolved to persevere
in their first purpose, they ought not to be too far from Italy, but
make what haste they could thither, and endeavor to relieve their
fellow-citizens from oppression.

Cassius obeyed his summons, and returned, and Brutus went to
meet him; and at Smyrna they met, which was the first time they had
seen one another since they parted at the Piræus in Athens, one for
Syria, and the other for Macedonia. They were both extremely joyful and
had great confidence of their success at the sight of the forces that
each of them had got together, since they who had fled from Italy, like
the most despicable exiles, without money, without arms, without a ship
or a soldier or a city to rely on, in a little time after had met
together so well furnished with shipping and money, and an army both of
horse and foot, that they were in a condition to contend for the empire
of Rome.

Cassius was desirous to show no less respect and honor to
Brutus than Brutus did to him; but Brutus was still beforehand with
him, coming for the most part to him, both because he was the elder
man, and of a weaker constitution than himself. Men generally reckoned
Cassius a very expert soldier, but of a harsh and angry nature, and one
that desired to command rather by fear than love; though, on the other
side, among his familiar acquaintance he would easily give way to
jesting, and play the buffoon. But Brutus, for his virtue, was esteemed
by the people, beloved by his friends, admired by the best men, and
hated not by his enemies themselves. For he was a man of a singularly
gentle nature, of a great spirit, insensible of the passions of anger
or pleasure or covetousness; steady and inflexible to maintain his
purpose for what he thought right and honest. And that which gained him
the greatest affection and reputation was the entire faith in his
intentions. For it had not ever been supposed that Pompey the Great
himself, if he had overcome Cæsar, would have submitted his power to
the laws, instead of taking the management of the state upon himself,
soothing the people with the specious name of consul or dictator, or
some other milder title than king. And they were well persuaded that
Cassius, being a man governed by anger and passion and carried often,
for his interest’s sake, beyond the bounce of justice, endured all
these hardships of war and travel and danger most assuredly to obtain
dominion to himself, and not liberty to the people. And as for the
former disturbers of the peace of Rome, whether a Cinna, a Marius, or a
Carbo, it is manifest that they, having set their country as a stake
for him that should win, did almost own in express terms that they
fought for empire. But even the enemies of Brutus did not, they tell
us, lay this accusation to his charge; nay, many heard Antony himself
say that Brutus was the only man that conspired against Cæsar out of a
sense of the glory and the apparent justice of the action, but that all
the rest rose up against the man himself, from private envy and malice
of their own. And it is plain by what he writes himself, that Brutus
did not so much rely upon his forces, as upon his own virtue. For thus
he speaks in a letter to Atticus, shortly before he was to engage with
the enemy: that his affairs were in the best state of fortune that he
could wish; for that either he should overcome, and restore liberty to
the people of Rome, or die, and be himself out of the reach of slavery;
that other things being certain and beyond all hazard, one thing was
yet in doubt, whether they should live or die free men. He adds
further, that Mark Antony had received a just punishment for his folly,
who, when he might have been numbered with Brutus and Cassius and Cato,
would join himself to Octavius; that though they should not now be both
overcome, they soon would fight between them selves. And in this he
seems to have been no ill prophet.

Now when they were at Smyrna, Brutus desired of Cassius that he
might have part of the great treasure that he had heaped up, because
all his own was expended in furnishing out such a fleet of ships as was
sufficient to keep the whole interior sea in their power. But Cassius’s
friends dissuaded him from this; “for,” said they, “it is not just that
the money which you with so much parsimony keep and with so much envy
have got, should be given to him to be disposed of in making himself
popular, and gaining the favor of the soldiers.” Notwithstanding this,
Cassius gave him a third part of all that he had; and then they parted
each to their several commands. Cassius, having taken Rhodes, behaved
himself there with no clemency; though at his first entry, when some
had called him lord and king, he answered, that he was neither king nor
lord, but the destroyer and punisher of a king and lord. Brutus, on the
other part, sent to the Lycians to demand from them a supply of money
and men; but Naucrates, their popular leader, persuaded the cities to
resist, and they occupied several little mountains and hills, with a
design to hinder Brutus’s passage. Brutus at first sent out a party of
horse, which, surprising them as they were eating, killed six hundred
of them; and afterwards, having taken all their small towns and
villages round about, he set all his prisoners free without ransom,
hoping to win the whole nation by good-will. But they continued
obstinate, taking in anger what they had suffered, and despising his
goodness and humanity; until, having forced the most warlike of them
into the city of Xanthus, he besieged them there. They endeavored to
make their escape by swimming and diving through the river that flows
by the town, but were taken by nets let down for that purpose in the
channel, which had little bells at the top, which gave present notice
of any that were taken in them. After that, they made a sally in the
night, and seizing several of the battering engines, set them on fire;
but being perceived by the Romans, were beaten back to their walls,
and, there being a strong wind, it carried the flames to the
battlements of the city with such fierceness, that several of the
adjoining houses took fire. Brutus, fearing lest the whole city should
be destroyed, commanded his own soldiers to assist, and quench the
fire.

But the Lycians were on a sudden possessed with a strange and
incredible desperation; such a frenzy as cannot be better expressed
than by calling it a violent appetite to die, for both women and
children, the bondmen and the free, those of all ages and of all
conditions strove to force away the soldiers that came in to their
assistance, from the walls; and themselves gathering together reeds and
wood, and whatever combustible matter they found, spread the fire over
the whole city, feeding it with whatever fuel they could, and by all
possible means exciting its fury, so that the flame, having dispersed
itself and encircled the whole city, blazed out in so terrible a
manner, that Brutus, being extremely afflicted at their calamity, got
on horseback and rode round the walls, earnestly desirous to preserve
the city, and, stretching forth his hands to the Xanthians, begged of
them that they would spare themselves and save their town. Yet none
regarded his entreaties, but by all manner of ways strove to destroy
themselves; not only men and women, but even boys and little children,
with a hideous outcry, leaped, some into the fire, others from the
walls, others fell upon their parents’ swords, baring their throats and
desiring to be struck. After the destruction of the city, there was
found a woman who had hanged herself with her young child hanging from
her neck, and the torch in her hand, with which she had fired her own
house. It was so tragical a sight, that Brutus could not endure to see
it, but wept at the very relation of it, and proclaimed a reward to any
soldier that could save a Xanthian. And it is said that one hundred and
fifty only were found, to have their lives saved against their wills.
Thus the Xanthians, after a long space of years, the fated period of
their destruction having, as it were, run its course, repeated by their
desperate deed the former calamity of their forefathers, who after the
very same manner in the Persian war had fired their city and destroyed
themselves.

Brutus, after this, finding the Patareans resolved to make
resistance and hold out their city against him, was very unwilling to
besiege it, and was in great perplexity lest the same frenzy might
seize them too. But having in his power some of their women, who were
his prisoners, he dismissed them all without any ransom; who, returning
and giving an account to their husbands and fathers, who were of the
greatest rank, what an excellent man Brutus was how temperate and how
just, persuaded them to yield themselves and put their city into his
hands. From this time all the cities round about came into his power,
submitting themselves to him, and found him good and merciful even
beyond their hopes. For though Cassius at the same time had compelled
the Rhodians to bring in all the silver and gold that each of them
privately was possessed of, by which he raised a sum of eight thousand
talents, and besides this had condemned the public to pay the sum of
five hundred talents more, Brutus, not having taken above a hundred and
fifty talents from the Lycians, and having done them no other manner of
injury, parted from thence with his army to go into Ionia.

Through the whole course of this expedition, Brutus did many
memorable acts of justice in dispensing rewards and punishments to such
as had deserved either; but one in particular I will relate, because he
himself, and all the noblest Romans, were gratified with it above all
the rest. When Pompey the Great, being overthrown from his great power
by Cæsar, had fled to Egypt, and landed near Pelusium, the protectors
of the young king consulted among themselves what was fit to be done on
that occasion, nor could they all agree in the same opinion, some being
for receiving him, others for driving him from Egypt. But Theodotus, a
Chian by birth, and then attending upon the king as a paid teacher of
rhetoric, and for want of better men admitted into the council,
undertook to prove to them, that both parties were in the wrong, those
that counseled to receive Pompey, and those that advised to send him
away; that in their present case one thing only was truly expedient, to
seize him and to kill him; and ended his argument with the proverb,
that “dead men don’t bite.” The council agreed to his opinion, and
Pompey the Great (an example of incredible and unforeseen events) was
slain, as the sophister himself had the impudence to boast, through the
rhetoric and cleverness of Theodotus. Not long after, when Cæsar came
to Egypt, some of the murderers received their just reward and suffered
the evil death they deserved. But Theodotus, though he had borrowed on
from fortune a little further time for a poor despicable and wandering
life, yet did not lie hid from Brutus as he passed through Asia; but
being seized by him and executed, had his death made more memorable
than was his life.

About this time, Brutus sent to Cassius to come to him at the
city of Sardis, and, when he was on his journey, went forth with his
friends to meet him; and the whole army in array saluted each of them
with the name of Imperator. Now (as it usually happens in business of
great concern and where many friends and many commanders are engaged),
several jealousies of each other and matters of private accusation
having passed between Brutus and Cassius, they resolved, before they
entered upon any other business, immediately to withdraw into some
apartment; where, the door being shut and they two alone, they began
first to expostulate, then to dispute hotly, and accuse each other; and
finally were so transported into passion as to fall to hard words, and
at last burst out into tears. Their friends who stood without were
amazed, hearing them loud and angry, and feared lest some mischief
might follow, but yet durst not interrupt them, being commanded not to
enter the room. However, Marcus Favonius, who had been an ardent
admirer of Cato, and, not so much by his learning or wisdom as by his
wild, vehement manner, maintained the character of a philosopher, was
rushing in upon them, but was hindered by the attendants. But it was a
hard matter to stop Favonius, wherever his wildness hurried him; for he
was fierce in all his behavior, and ready to do anything to get his
will. And though he was a senator, yet, thinking that one of the least
of his excellences, he valued himself more upon a sort of cynical
liberty of speaking what he pleased, which sometimes, indeed, did away
with the rudeness and unseasonableness of his addresses with those that
would interpret it in jest. This Favonius, breaking by force through
those that kept the doors, entered into the chamber, and with a set
voice declaimed the verses that Homer makes Nestor use—

“Be ruled, for I am older than ye both.”

At this Cassius laughed; but Brutus thrust him out, calling him
impudent dog and counterfeit Cynic; but yet for the present they let it
put an end to their dispute, and parted. Cassius made a supper that
night, and Brutus invited the guests; and when they were set down,
Favonius, having bathed, came in among them. Brutus called out aloud
and told him he was not invited, and bade him go to the upper couch;
but he violently thrust himself in, and lay down on the middle one; and
the entertainment passed in sportive talk, not wanting either wit or
philosophy.

The next day after, upon the accusation of the Sardians, Brutus
publicly disgraced and condemned Lucius Pella, one that had been censor
of Rome, and employed in offices of trust by himself, for having
embezzled the public money. This action did not a little vex Cassius;
for but a few days before, two of his own friends being accused of the
same crime, he only admonished them in private, but in public absolved
them, and continued them in his service; and upon this occasion he
accused Brutus of too much rigor and severity of justice in a time
which required them to use more policy and favor. But Brutus bade him
remember the Ides of March, the day when they killed Cæsar, who himself
neither plundered nor pillaged mankind, but was only the support and
strength of those that did; and bade him consider, that if there was
any color for justice to be neglected, it had been better to suffer the
injustice of Cæsar’s friends than to give impunity to their own; “for
then,” said he, “we could have been accused of cowardice only; whereas
now we are liable to the accusation of injustice, after all our pain
and dangers which we endure.” By which we may perceive what was
Brutus’s purpose, and the rule of his actions.

About the time that they were going to pass out of Asia into
Europe, it is said that a wonderful sign was seen by Brutus. He was
naturally given to much watching, and by practice and moderation in his
diet had reduced his allowance of sleep to a very small amount of time.
He never slept in the daytime, and in the night then only when all his
business was finished, and when, everyone else being gone to rest, he
had nobody to discourse with him. But at this time, the war being
begun, having the whole state of it to consider and being solicitous of
the event, after his first sleep, which he let himself take after his
supper, he spent all the rest of the night in settling his most urgent
affairs; which if he could dispatch early and so make a saving of any
leisure, he employed himself in reading until the third watch, at which
time the centurions and tribunes were used to come to him for orders.
Thus one night before he passed out of Asia, he was very late all alone
in his tent, with a dim light burning by him, all the rest of the camp
being hushed and silent; and reasoning about something with himself and
very thoughtful, he fancied someone came in, and, looking up towards
the door, he saw a terrible and strange appearance of an unnatural and
frightful body standing by him without speaking. Brutus boldly asked
it, “What are you, of men or gods, and upon what business come to me?”
The figure answered, “I am your evil genius, Brutus; you shall see me
at Philippi.” To which Brutus, not at all disturbed, replied, “Then I
shall see you.”

As soon as the apparition vanished, he called his servants to
him, who all told him that they had neither heard any voice nor seen
any vision. So then he continued watching till the morning, when he
went to Cassius, and told him of what he had seen. He, who followed the
principles of Epicurus’s philosophy, and often used to dispute with
Brutus concerning matters of this nature, spoke to him thus upon this
occasion: “It is the opinion of our sect, Brutus, that not all that we
feel or see is real and true; but that the sense is a most slippery and
deceitful thing, and the mind yet more quick and subtle to put the
sense in motion and affect it with every kind of change upon no real
occasion of fact; just as an impression is made upon wax; and the soul
of man, which has in itself both what imprints and what is imprinted
on, may most easily, by its own operations, produce and assume every
variety of shape and figure. This is evident from the sudden changes of
our dreams; in which the imaginative principle, once started by
anything matter, goes through a whole series of most diverse emotions
and appearances. It is its nature to be ever in motion, and its motion
is fantasy or conception. But besides all this, in your case, the body,
being tired and distressed with continual toil, naturally works upon
the mind, and keeps it in an excited and unusual condition. But that
there should be any such thing as supernatural beings, or, if there
were, that they should have human shape or voice or power that can
reach to us, there is no reason for believing; though I confess I could
wish that there were such beings, that we might not rely upon our arms
only, and our horses and our navy, all which are so numerous and
powerful, but might be confident of the assistance of gods also, in
this our most sacred and honorable attempt.” With such discourses as
these Cassius soothed the mind of Brutus. But just as the troops were
going on board, two eagles flew and lighted on the first two ensigns,
and crossed over the water with them, and never ceased following the
soldiers and being fed by them till they came to Philippi, and there,
but one day before the fight, they both flew away.

Brutus had already reduced most of the places and people of
these parts; but they now marched on as far as to the coast opposite
Thasos, and, if there were any city or man of power that yet stood out,
brought them all to subjection. At this point Norbanus was encamped, in
a place called the Straits, near Symbolum. Him they surrounded in such
sort that they forced him to dislodge and quit the place; and Norbanus
narrowly escaped losing his whole army, Cæsar by reason of sickness
being too far behind; only Antony came to his relief with such
wonderful swiftness that Brutus and those with him did not believe when
they heard he was come. Cæsar came up ten days after, and encamped over
against Brutus, and Antony over against Cassius.

The space between the two armies is called by the Romans the
Campi Philippi. Never had two such large Roman armies come together to
engage each other. That of Brutus was somewhat less in number than that
of Cæsar, but in the splendidness of the men’s arms and richness of
their equipage it wonderfully exceeded; for most of their arms were of
gold and silver, which Brutus had lavishly bestowed among them. For
though in other things he had accustomed his commanders to use all
frugality and self-control, yet he thought that the riches which
soldiers carried about them in their hands and on their bodies would
add something of spirit to those that were desirous of glory, and would
make those that were covetous and lovers of gain fight the more
valiantly to preserve the arms which were their estate.

Cæsar made a view and lustration of his army within his
trenches, and distributed only a little corn and but five drachmas to
each soldier for the sacrifice they were to make. But Brutus, either
pitying this poverty, or disdaining this meanness of spirit in Cæsar,
first, as the custom was, made a general muster and lustration of the
army in the open field, and then distributed a great number of beasts
for sacrifice to every regiment, and fifty drachmas to every soldier;
so that in the love of his soldiers and their readiness to fight for
him Brutus had much the advantage. But at the time of lustration it is
reported that an unlucky omen happened to Cassius; for his lictor,
presenting him with a garland that he was to wear at sacrifice, gave it
him the wrong way up. Further, it is said that some time before, at a
certain solemn procession, a golden image of Victory, which was carried
before Cassius, fell down by a slip of him that carried it. Besides
this there appeared many birds of prey daily about the camp, and swarms
of bees were seen in a place within the trenches, which place the
soothsayers ordered to be shut out from the camp, to remove the
superstition which insensibly began to infect even Cassius himself and
shake him in his Epicurean philosophy, and had wholly seized and
subdued the soldiers; from whence it was that Cassius was reluctant to
put all to the hazard of a present battle, but advised rather to draw
out the war until further time, considering that they were stronger in
money and provisions, but in numbers of men and arms inferior. But
Brutus, on the contrary, was still, as formerly, desirous to come with
all speed to the decision of a battle; that so he might either restore
his country to her liberty, or else deliver from their misery all those
numbers of people whom they harassed with the expenses and the service
and exactions of the war. And finding also his light-horse in several
skirmishes still to have had the better, he was the more encouraged and
resolved; and some of the soldiers having deserted and gone to the
enemy, and others beginning to accuse and suspect one another, many of
Cassius’s friends in the council changed their opinions to that of
Brutus. But there was one of Brutus’s party, named Atellius, who
opposed his resolution, advising rather that they should tarry over the
winter. And when Brutus asked him in how much better a condition he
hoped to be a year after, his answer was, “If I gain nothing else, yet
I shall live so much the longer.” Cassius was much displeased at this
answer; and among the rest, Atellius was had in much disesteem for it.
And so it was presently resolved to give battle the next day.

Brutus that night at supper showed himself very cheerful and
full of hope, and reasoned on subjects of philosophy with his friends,
and afterwards went to his rest. But Messala says that Cassius supped
privately with a few of his nearest acquaintance, and appeared
thoughtful and silent, contrary to his temper and custom; that after
supper he took him earnestly by the hand, and speaking to him, as his
manner was when he wished to show affection, in Greek, said, “Bear
witness for me, Messala, that I am brought into the same necessity as
Pompey the Great was before me, of hazarding the liberty of my country
upon one battle; yet ought we to be of courage, relying on our good
fortune, which it were unfair to mistrust, though we take evil
counsels.” These, Messala says, were the last words that Cassius spoke
before he bade him farewell; and that he was invited to sup with him
the next night, being his birthday.

As soon as it was morning, the signal of battle, the scarlet
coat, was set out in Brutus’s and Cassius’s camps, and they themselves
met in the middle space between their two armies. There Cassius spoke
thus to Brutus: “Be it as we hope, O Brutus, that this day we may
overcome, and all the rest of our time may live a happy life together;
but since the greatest of human concerns are the most uncertain, and
since it may be difficult for us ever to see one another again, if the
battle should go against us, tell me, what is your resolution
concerning flight and death?” Brutus answered, “When I was young,
Cassius, and unskillful in affairs, I was led, I know not how, into
uttering a bold sentence in philosophy, and blamed Cato for killing
himself, as thinking it an irreligious act, and not a valiant one among
men, to try to evade the divine course of things, and not fearlessly to
receive and undergo the evil that shall happen, but run away from it.
But now in my own fortunes I am of another mind; for if Providence
shall not dispose what we now undertake according to our wishes, I
resolve to put no further hopes or warlike preparations to the proof,
but will die contented with my fortune. For I already have given up my
life to my country on the Ides of March; and have lived since then a
second life for her sake, with liberty and honor.” Cassius at these
words smiled, and, embracing Brutus said, “With these resolutions let
us go on upon the enemy; for either we ourselves shall conquer, or have
no cause to fear those that do.” After this they discoursed among their
friends about the ordering of the battle; and Brutus desired of Cassius
that he might command the right wing, though it was thought that this
was more fit for Cassius, in regard both of his age and his experience.
Yet even in this Cassius complied with Brutus, and placed Messala with
the valiantest of all his legions in the same wing, so Brutus
immediately drew out his horse, excellently well equipped, and was not
long in bringing up his foot after them.

Antony’s soldiers were casting trenches from the marsh by which
they were encamped, across the plain, to cut off Cassius’s
communications with the sea. Cæsar was to be at hand with his troops to
support them, but he was not able to be present himself, by reason of
his sickness; and his soldiers, not much expecting that the enemy would
come to a set battle, but only make some excursions with their darts
and light arms to disturb the men at work in the trenches, and not
taking notice of the boons drawn up against them ready to give battle,
were amazed when they heard the confused and great outcry that came
from the trenches. In the meanwhile Brutus had sent his tickets, in
which was the word of battle, to the officers; and himself riding about
to all the troops, encouraged the soldiers; but there were but few of
them that understood the word before they engaged; the most of them,
not staying to have it delivered to them, with one impulse and cry ran
upon the enemy. This disorder caused an unevenness in the line, and the
legions got severed and divided one from another; that of Messala
first, and afterwards the other adjoining, went beyond the left wing of
Cæsar; and having just touched the extremity, without slaughtering any
great number, passing round that wing, fell directly into Cæsar’s camp.
Cæsar himself, as his own memoirs tell us, had but just before been
conveyed away, Marcus Artorius, one of his friends, having had a dream
bidding Cæsar be carried out of the camp. And it was believed that he
was slain; for the soldiers had pierced his litter, which was left
empty, in many places with their darts and pikes. There was a great
slaughter in the camp that was taken, and two thousand Lacedæmonians
that were newly come to the assistance of Cæsar were all cut off
together.

The rest of the army, that had not gone round but had engaged
the front, easily overthrew them, finding them in great disorder, and
slew upon the place three legions; and being carried on with the stream
of victory, pursuing those that fled, fell into the camp with them,
Brutus himself being there. But they that were conquered took the
advantage in their extremity of what the conquerors did not consider.
For they fell upon that part of the main body which had been left
exposed and separated, where the right wing had broke off from them and
hurried away in the pursuit; yet they could not break into the midst of
their battle, but were received with strong resistance and obstinacy.
Yet they put to flight the left wing, where Cassius commanded, being in
great disorder, and ignorant of what had passed on the other wing; and,
pursuing them to their camp, they pillaged and destroyed it, neither of
their generals being present; for Antony, they say, to avoid the fury
of the first onset, had retired into the marsh that was hard by; and
Cæsar was nowhere to be found after his being conveyed out of the
tents; though some of the soldiers showed Brutus their swords bloody,
and declared that they had killed him, describing his person and his
age. By this time also the center of Brutus’s battle had driven back
their opponents with great slaughter; and Brutus was everywhere plainly
conqueror, as on the other side Cassius was conquered. And this one
mistake was the ruin of their affairs, that Brutus did not come to the
relief of Cassius, thinking that he, as well as himself, was conqueror;
and that Cassius did not expect the relief of Brutus, thinking that he
too was overcome. For as a proof that the victory was on Brutus’s side,
Messala urges his taking three eagles and many ensigns of the enemy
without losing any of his own. But now, returning from the pursuit
after having plundered Cæsar’s camp, Brutus wondered that he could not
see Cassius’s tent standing high, as it was wont, and appearing above
the rest, nor other things appearing as they had been; for they had
been immediately pulled down and pillaged by the enemy upon their first
falling into the camp. But some that had a quicker and longer sight
than the rest acquainted Brutus that they saw a great deal of shining
armor and silver targets moving to and fro in Cassius’s camp, and that
they thought, by their number and the fashion of their armor, they
could not be those that they left to guard the camp; but yet that there
did not appear so great a number of dead bodies thereabouts as it was
probable there would have been after the actual defeat of so many
legions. This first made Brutus suspect Cassius’s misfortune, and,
leaving a guard in the enemy’s camp, he called back those that were in
the pursuit, and rallied them together to lead them to the relief of
Cassius, whose fortune had been as follows.

First, he had been angry at the onset that Brutus’s soldiers
made, without the word of battle or command to charge. Then, after they
had overcome, he was as much displeased to see them rush on to the
plunder and spoil, and neglect to surround and encompass the rest of
the enemy. Besides this, letting himself act by delay and expectation,
rather than command boldly and with a clear purpose, he got hemmed in
by the right wing of the enemy, and, his horse making with all haste
their escape and flying towards the sea, the foot also began to give
way, which he perceiving labored as much as ever he could to hinder
their flight and bring them back; and, snatching an ensign out of the
hand of one that fled, he stuck it at his feet, though he could hardly
keep even his own personal guard together. So that at last he was
forced to fly with a few about him to a little hill that overlooked the
plain. But he himself, being weak-sighted, discovered nothing, only the
destruction of his camp, and that with difficulty. But they that were
with him saw a great body of horse moving towards him, the same whom
Brutus had sent. Cassius believed these were enemies, and in pursuit of
him; however, he sent away Titinius, one of those that were with him,
to learn what they were. As soon as Brutus’s horse saw him coming, and
knew him to be a friend and a faithful servant of Cassius, those of
them that were his more familiar acquaintance, shouting out for joy and
alighting from their horses, shook hands and embraced him, and the rest
rode round about him singing and shouting, through their excess of
gladness at the sight of him. But this was the occasion of the greatest
mischief that could be. For Cassius really thought that Titinius had
been taken by the enemy, and cried out, “Through too much fondness of
life, I have lived to endure the sight of my friend taken by the enemy
before my face.” After which words he retired into an empty tent,
taking along with him only Pindarus, one of his freedmen, whom he had
reserved for such an occasion ever since the disasters in the
expedition against the Parthians, when Crassus was slain. From the
Parthians he came away in safety; but now, pulling up his mantle over
his head, he made his neck bare, and held it forth to Pindarus,
commanding him to strike. The head was certainly found lying severed
from the body. But no man ever saw Pindarus after, from which some
suspected that he had killed his master without his command. Soon after
they perceived who the horsemen were, and saw Titinius, crowned with
garlands, making what haste he could towards Cassius. But as soon as he
understood by the cries and lamentations of his afflicted friends the
unfortunate error and death of his general, he drew his sword, and
having very much accused and upbraided his own long stay, that had
caused it, he slew himself.

Brutus, as soon as he was assured of the defeat of Cassius,
made haste to him; but heard nothing of his death till he came near his
camp. Then having lamented over his body, calling him “the last of the
Romans,” it being impossible that the city should ever produce another
man of so great a spirit, he sent away the body to be buried at Thasos,
lest celebrating his funeral within the camp might breed some disorder.
He then gathered the soldiers together and comforted them; and, seeing
them destitute of all things necessary, he promised to every man two
thousand drachmas in recompense of what he had lost. They at these
words took courage, and were astonished at the magnificence of the
gift; and waited upon him at his parting with shouts and praises,
magnifying him for the only general of all the four who was not
overcome in the battle. And indeed the action itself testified that it
was not without reason he believed he should conquer; for with a few
legions he overthrew all that resisted him; and if all his soldiers had
fought, and the most of them had not passed beyond the enemy in pursuit
of the plunder, it is very likely that he had utterly defeated every
part of them.

There fell of his side eight thousand men, reckoning the
servants of the army, whom Brutus calls Briges; and on the other side,
Messala says his opinion is that there were slain above twice that
number. For which reason they were more out of heart than Brutus, until
a servant of Cassius, named Demetrius, came in the evening to Antony,
and brought to him the garment which he had taken from the dead body,
and his sword; at the sight of which they were so encouraged, that, as
soon as it was morning, they drew out their whole force into the field,
and stood in battle array. But Brutus found both his camps wavering and
in disorder; for his own, being filled with prisoners, required a guard
more strict than ordinary over them; and that of Cassius was uneasy at
the change of general, besides some envy and rancor, which those that
were conquered bore to that part of the army which had been conquerors.
Wherefore he thought it convenient to put his army in array, but to
abstain from fighting. All the slaves that were taken prisoners, of
whom there was a great number that were mixed up, not without
suspicion, among the soldiers, he commanded to be slain; but of the
freemen and citizens, some he dismissed, saying that among the enemy
they were rather prisoners than with him, for with them they were
captives and slaves, but with him freemen and citizens of Rome. But he
was forced to hide and help them to escape privately, perceiving that
his friends and officers were bent upon revenge against them. Among the
captives there was one Volumnius, a player, and Sacculio, a buffoon; of
these Brutus took no manner of notice, but his friends brought them
before him, and accused them that even then in that condition they did
not refrain from their jests and scurrilous language. Brutus, having
his mind taken up with other affairs, said nothing to their accusation;
but the judgment of Messala Corvinus was, that they should be whipped
publicly upon a stage, and so sent naked to the captains of the enemy,
to show them what sort of fellow drinkers and companions they took with
them on their campaigns. At this some that were present laughed; and
Publius Casca, he that gave the first wound to Cæsar, said, “We do ill
to jest and make merry at the funeral of Cassius. But you, O Brutus,”
he added, “will show what esteem you have for the memory of that
general, according as you punish or preserve alive those who will scoff
and speak shamefully of him.” To this Brutus, in great discomposure
replied, “Why then, Casca, do you ask me about it, and not do
yourselves what you think fitting?” This answer of Brutus was taken for
his consent to the death of these wretched men; so they were carried
away and slain.

After this he gave the soldiers the reward that he had promised
them; and having slightly reproved them for having fallen upon the
enemy in disorder without the word of battle or command, he promised
them, that if they behaved themselves bravely in the next engagement,
he would give them up two cities to spoil and plunder, Thessalonica and
Lacedæmon. This is the one indefensible thing of all that is found
fault with in the life of Brutus; though true it may be that Antony and
Cæsar were much more cruel in the rewards that they gave their soldiers
after victory; for they drove out, one might almost say, all the old
inhabitants of Italy, to put their soldiers in possession of other
men’s lands and cities. But indeed their only design and end in
undertaking the war was to obtain dominion and empire, whereas Brutus,
for the reputation of his virtue, could not be permitted either to
overcome or save himself but with justice and honor, especially after
the death of Cassius, who was generally accused of having been his
adviser to some things that he had done with less clemency. But now, as
in a ship, when the rudder is broken by a storm, the mariners fit and
nail on some other piece of wood instead of it, striving against the
danger not well, but as well as in that necessity they can, so Brutus,
being at the head of so great an army, in a time of such uncertainty,
having no commander equal to his need, was forced to make use of those
that he had, and to do and to say many things according to their
advice; which was, in effect, whatever might conduce to the bringing of
Cassius’s soldiers into better order. For they were very headstrong and
intractable, bold and insolent in the camp for want of their general,
but in the field cowardly and fearful, remembering that they had been
beaten.

Neither were the affairs of Cæsar and Antony in any better
posture; for they were straitened for provision, and, the camp being in
a low ground, they expected to pass a very hard winter. For being
driven close upon the marshes, and a great quantity of rain, as is
usual in autumn, having fallen after the battle, their tents were all
filled with mire and water, which through the coldness of the weather
immediately froze. And while they were in this condition, there was
news brought to them of their loss at sea. For Brutus’s fleet fell upon
their ships, which were bringing a great supply of soldiers out of
Italy, and so entirely defeated them, that but very few of the men
escaped being slain, and they too were forced by famine to feed upon
the sails and tackle of the ship. As soon as they heard this, they made
what haste they could to come to the decision of a battle, before
Brutus should have notice of his good success. For it had so happened
that the fight both by sea and land was on the same day, but by some
misfortune, rather than the fault of his commanders, Brutus knew not of
his victory twenty days after. For had he been informed of this, he
would not have been brought to a second battle, since he had sufficient
provisions for his army for a long time, and was very advantageously
posted, his camp being well sheltered from the cold weather, and almost
inaccessible to the enemy, and his being absolute master of the sea,
and having at land overcome on that side wherein he himself was
engaged, would have made him full of hope and confidence. But it seems,
the state of Rome not enduring any longer to be governed by many, but
necessarily requiring a monarchy, the divine power, that it might
remove out of the way the only man that was able to resist him that
could control the empire, cut off his good fortune from coming to the
ears of Brutus; though it came but a very little too late, for the very
evening before the fight, Clodius, a deserter from the enemy, came and
announced that Cæsar had received advice of the loss of his fleet, and
for that reason was in such haste to come to a battle. But his story
met with no credit, nor was he so much as seen by Brutus, being simply
set down as one that had had no good information, or invented lies to
bring himself into favor.

The same night, they say, the vision appeared again to Brutus,
in the same shape that it did before, but vanished without speaking.
But Publius Volumnius, a philosopher, and one that had from the
beginning borne arms with Brutus, makes no mention of this apparition,
but says that the first eagle was covered with a swarm of bees, and
that there was one of the captains whose arm of itself sweated oil of
roses, and, though they often dried and wiped it, yet it would not
cease; and that immediately before the battle, two eagles falling upon
each other fought in the space between the two armies, that the whole
field kept incredible silence and all were intent upon the spectacle,
until at last that which was on Brutus’s side yielded and fled. But the
story of the Ethiopian is very famous, who meeting the standard-bearer
at the opening the gate of the camp, was cut to pieces by the soldiers,
that took it for an ill omen.

Brutus, having brought his army into the field and set them in
array against the enemy, paused a long while before he would fight;
for, as he was reviewing the troops, suspicions were excited, and
informations laid against some of them. Besides, he saw his horse not
very eager to begin the action, and waiting to see what the foot would
do. Then suddenly Camulatus, a very good soldier, and one whom for his
valor he highly esteemed, riding hard by Brutus himself, went over to
the enemy, the sight of which grieved Brutus exceedingly. So that
partly out of anger, and partly out of fear of some greater treason and
desertion, he immediately drew on his forces upon the enemy, the sun
now declining, about three of the clock in the afternoon. Brutus on his
side had the better, and pressed hard on the left wing, which gave way
and retreated; and the horse too fell in together with the foot, when
they saw the enemy in disorder. But the other wing, when the officers
extended the line to avoid its being encompassed, the numbers being
inferior, got drawn out too thin in the center, and was so weak here
that they could not withstand the charge, but at the first onset fled.
After defeating these, the enemy at once took Brutus in the rear, who
all the while performed all that was possible for an expert general and
valiant soldier, doing everything in the peril, by counsel and by hand,
that might recover the victory. But that which had been his superiority
in the former fight was to his prejudice in this second. For in the
first fight, that part of the enemy which was beaten was killed on the
spot; but of Cassius’s soldiers that fled few had been slain, and those
that escaped, daunted with their defeat, infected the other and larger
part of the army with their want of spirit and their disorder. Here
Marcus, the son of Cato, was slain, fighting and behaving himself with
great bravery in the midst of the youth of the highest rank and
greatest valor. He would neither fly nor give the least ground, but,
still fighting and declaring who he was and naming his father’s name,
he fell upon a heap of dead bodies of the enemy. And of the rest, the
bravest were slain in defending Brutus.

There was in the field one Lucilius, an excellent man and a
friend of Brutus, who, seeing some barbarian horse taking no notice of
any other in the pursuit, but galloping at full speed after Brutus,
resolved to stop them, though with the hazard of his life; and, letting
himself fall a little behind, he told them that he was Brutus. They
believed him the rather, because he prayed to be carried to Antony, as
if he feared Cæsar, but durst trust him. They, overjoyed with their
prey, and thinking themselves wonderfully fortunate, carried him along
with them in the night, having first sent messengers to Antony of their
coming. He was much pleased, and came to meet them; and all the rest
that heard that Brutus was taken and brought alive, flocked together to
see him, some pitying his fortune, others accusing; him of a meanness
unbecoming his former glory, that out of too much love of life he would
be a prey to barbarians. When they came near together, Antony stood
still, considering with himself in what manner he should receive
Brutus. But Lucilius, being brought up to him, with great confidence
said: “Be assured, Antony, that no enemy either has taken or ever shall
take Marcus Brutus alive (forbid it, heaven, that fortune should ever
so much prevail above virtue!), but he shall be found, alive or dead,
as becomes himself. As for me, I am come hither by a cheat that I put
upon your soldiers, and am ready, upon this occasion, to suffer any
severities you will inflict.” All were amazed to hear Lucilius speak
these words. But Antony, turning himself to those that brought him,
said: “I perceive, my fellow-soldiers, that you are concerned and take
it ill that you have been thus deceived, and think yourselves abused
and injured by it; but know that you have met with a booty better than
that you sought. For you were in search of an enemy, but you have
brought me here a friend. For indeed I am uncertain how I should have
used Brutus, if you had brought him alive; but of this I am sure, that
it is better to have such men as Lucilius our friends than our
enemies.” Having said this, he embraced Lucilius, and for the present
commended him to the care of one of his friends, and ever after found
him a steady and a faithful friend.

Brutus had now passed a little brook, running among trees and
under steep rocks, and, it being night, would go no further, but sat
down in a hollow place with a great rock projecting before it, with a
few of his officers and friends about him. At first, looking up to
heaven, that was then full of stars, he repeated two verses, one of
which, Volumnius writes, was this:—

“Punish, great Jove, the author of these ills.”

The other he says he has forgot. Soon after, naming severally
all his friends that had been slain before his face in the battle, he
groaned heavily, especially at the mentioning of Flavius and Labeo, the
latter his lieutenant, and the other chief officer of his engineers. In
the meantime, one of his companions, that was very thirsty and saw
Brutus in the same condition, took his helmet and ran to the brook for
water, when, a noise being heard from the other side of the river,
Volumnius, taking Dardanus, Brutus’s armor-bearer, with him, went out
to see what it was. They returned in a short space, and inquired about
the water. Brutus, smiling with much meaning, said to Volumnius, “It is
all drunk; but you shall have some more fetched.” But he that had
brought the first water, being sent again, was in great danger of being
taken by the enemy, and, having received a wound, with much difficulty
escaped.

Now Brutus guessing that not many of his men were slain in the
fight, Statyllius undertook to dash through the enemy (for there was no
other way), and to see what was become of their camp; and promised, if
he found all things there safe, to hold up a torch for a signal, and
then return. The torch was held up, for Statyllius got safe to the
camp; but when after a long time he did not return, Brutus said, “If
Statyllius be alive, he will come back.” But it happened that in his
return he fell into the enemy’s hands, and was slain.

The night now being far spent, Brutus, as he was sitting,
leaned his head towards his servant Clitus and spoke to him; he
answered him not, but fell a weeping. After that, he drew aside his
armor-bearer, Dardanus, and had some discourse with him in private. At
last, speaking to Volumnius in Greek, he reminded him of their common
studies and former discipline, and begged that he would take hold of
his sword with him, and help him to thrust it through him. Volumnius
put away his request, and several others did the like; and someone
saying, that there was no staying there, but they needs must fly,
Brutus, rising up, said, “Yes, indeed, we must fly, but not with our
feet, but with our hands.” Then giving each of them his right hand,
with a countenance full of pleasure, he said, that he found an infinite
satisfaction in this, that none of his friends had been false to him;
that as for fortune, he was angry with that only for his country’s
sake; as for himself, he thought himself much more happy than they who
had overcome, not only as he had been a little time ago, but even now
in his present condition; since he was leaving behind him such a
reputation of his virtue as none of the conquerors with all their arms
and riches should ever be able to acquire, no more than they could
hinder posterity from believing and saying, that, being unjust and
wicked men, they had destroyed the just and the good, and usurped a
power to which they had no right. After this, having exhorted and
entreated all about him to provide for their own safety, he withdrew
from them with two or three only of his peculiar friends; Strato was
one of these, with whom he had contracted an acquaintance when they
studied rhetoric together. Him he placed next to himself, and, taking
hold of the hilt of his sword and directing it with both his hands, he
fell upon it, and killed himself. But others say, that not he himself,
but Strato, at the earnest entreaty of Brutus, turning aside his head,
held the sword, upon which he violently throwing himself, it pierced
his breast, and he immediately died. This same Strato, Messala, a
friend of Brutus, being, after reconciled to Cæsar, brought to him once
at his leisure, and with tears in his eyes said, “This, O Cæsar, is the
man that did the last friendly office to my beloved Brutus.” Upon which
Cæsar received him kindly; and had good use of him in his labors and
his battles at Actium, being one of the Greeks that proved their
bravery in his service. It is reported of Messala himself, that, when
Cæsar once gave him this commendation, that though he was his fiercest
enemy at Philippi in the cause of Brutus, yet he had shown himself his
most entire friend in the fight of Actium, he answered, “You have
always found me, Cæsar, on the best and justest side.”

Brutus’s dead body was found by Antony, who commanded the
richest purple mantle that he had to be thrown over it, and afterwards
the mantle being stolen, he found the thief, and had him put to death.
He sent the ashes of Brutus to his mother Servilia. As for Porcia his
wife, Nicolaus the philosopher and Valerius Maximus write, that, being
desirous to die, but being hindered by her friends, who continually
watched her, she snatched some burning charcoal out of the fire, and,
shutting it close in her mouth, stifled herself, and died. Though there
is a letter current from Brutus to his friends, in which he laments the
death of Porcia, and accuses them for neglecting her so that she
desired to die rather than languish with her disease. So that it seems
Nicolaus was mistaken in the time; for this epistle (if it indeed is
authentic, and truly Brutus’s) gives us to understand the malady and
love of Porcia, and the way in which her death occurred.